I have a bunch of cultured algal isolates from environmental soil crusts that we are looking to ID via sequencing. However, all our plates have Phoma sp. Fungal contamination. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of the contamination? Media amended with antifungals hasn't worked. We are growing our algae on standard BBM.
Thank you!
Silva, A., Delerue-Matos, C., Figueiredo, S. A., & Freitas, O. M. (2019). The Use of Algae and Fungi for Removal of Pharmaceuticals by Bioremediation and Biosorption Processes: A Review. Water, 11(8), 1555.
I hope that helps
Thank you for the interesting article Asiel. Unfortunately, it did not help answer my question on how to get rid of fungal contamination in algal cultures isolated on BBM plates.
In many cases it is possible to sequence contaminated cultures with specific algal primers. Which groups of algae do you have? Which antifungals were used?
Thank you for your response. We don't know which algae we have as they are isolated from environmental samples, but we expect representatives from the green algae, Trentepohlia, and cyanobacteria.
Currently, I am trying a protocol that uses carbendazim with antibiotics (ampilicin, kanamycin, gentamicin, and chloramphenicol) in BBM media. Citinases have failed in the past.
One could try to amplify rbcL (non-photosynthetic contaminants would not disturb).
I often use ampicillin and amphotericin (for eukaryotic algae) for my cultures combined with mechanical separation. Rotation between liquid and agarised media could be also helpful.
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